2012 Movie Madness Challenge - November and December Report

Time for my combination eleventh and twelfth status report for the Movie Madness Challenge.

WOO HOO!

It took an entire year of concerted effort, but I did it. 100 films. Movie Master status.

That's the whole point of taking up a challenge. If it's easy, why bother? The point is to stretch outside of your comfort zone.

When I began this challenge, I knew I wasn't watching as many films as I once used to do. Films are the joy of my life aside from dance. If I wasn't making room in my life for joy, it was time to do something about that.

A brief shout-out to my late dog Xena:

Last January 1st, one of the things I was happiest about was the time I knew I would be spending snuggled up on the couch with my dog. She spent many an hour beneath my chair here at my desk waiting patiently until I switched over to the couch for some Pack time.

Only six days into 2012, my Xena passed away at age 11. I almost couldn't bear continuing on with the new Movie Madness Challenge, since a big part of it had been my intention to watch the movies with Xena cuddled up beside me.

Yet I persisted.

I dedicate this entire year's Movie Madness Challenge to my little furry chum. Thanks for making all the movies we did share together so comfy and blissful.

I'd also like to tip my hat to my co-movie-watcher: my husband Brad, who watched nearly every movie alongside me. He's a passionate movie watcher himself and far out-stripped me in movie totals. But he had my back for this challenge and helped me keep pace.

Here is my code for the films:

New to me - N
Repeat viewing - R

I'll also be including how I viewed the films:

DVD
VHS (yes, we have a lot of those, and a VCR)
Network TV
Pay TV
Internet
In theatre

Because I was deeply involved in writing my second Scorpius book in November for NaNoWriMo, I didn't post a separate challenge update and I'm including those films here. There were only three of them!

NOVEMBER 

War and Peace
Internet
N

Brave
DVD
N

Grease
VHS
R

DECEMBER

Tangled 
Pay TV
N

John Carter
Pay TV
N

Haywire
Pay TV
N

Super 8
DVD
N

The Polar Express
DVD
N

 

A Christmas Carol
DVD
R

Kick-Ass
DVD
R

Voyage of the Dawn Treader
DVD
R

The Amazing Spider-Man
DVD
N

Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) 
DVD
R

Day Watch (Dnevnoy Dozor)
DVD
R

Blackadder's Christmas Carol
DVD
R

Dr. Who - The Snowmen
Network TV
N

I combined these two 1-hour Christmas specials to count as one 2-hour film, since I couldn't live through Christmas Eve without watching Blackadder's Christmas Carol, and the Dr. Who special just couldn't be missed. Not with jagged-toothed snowmen.

Les Miserables
Theatre
N

Ironiya Sudby (The Irony of Fate)
DVD
R


 

Team America: World Police
DVD
R

Faraon (Pharaoh)
Internet
N

Stumbled upon this 1966 Polish film on You Tube. Watched it dubbed in Russian without subtitles - good practice for my Russian. Nothing like today's films-for-short-attention-spans. Loved it.

A Fish Called Wanda
DVD
R

This one is scheduled for tonight's New Year's Eve celebration. Can't wait to see it! Haven't seen it since it played first-run at the Runnymede Theatre where Brad and I used to work back in the day, in fact where we met.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Total movies for November - 3

Total movies for December - 17

Total movies for 2012 - 100!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

25 Movies: Movie Newbie - reached this first milestone by April

50 Movies: Movie Fanatic - reached this one by July

75 Movies: Movie Critic - reached the third level by October

100+ Movies: Movie Master - it took the 365th day of 2012 to reach the final level. *happy sigh*

Thanks to everyone who checked in on my progress every month!

Virtual Advent Blog Tour 2012

 

Welcome everyone to A Piece of My Mind!

This is my fifth post for the Virtual Advent Blog Tour. I came across it in 2007, my first year of blogging. In the five years since then, it has been a favorite tradition for me here. So it's with a special sense of excitement that I share with you the most incredible tale of wishes coming true.

Many people, including me, like to usher in the new year with intention. I make a point of including symbolic hopes for the year to come in our celebration. For example, even if our fun is casual and includes just my mom, my husband and myself, we deck ourselves in bling and use the best china and crystal, toast in the new year, open the front door to let the new year in and the back door to let the old year out. That's my mom, below, welcoming 2010. 

 

 

Last year the three of us had a Russian New Year's celebration. Why Russian, you may ask? I thought you were French Acadian.

 

Well, once upon a time - 28 years ago, actually, my sister and I made friends with a Russian cadet from a marine college who sailed into Halifax Harbour aboard the tall ship Kruzenshtern as part of the 1984 Tall Ships Festival. 

 

 

 

You can read about this romantic tale here:

13 Things About the Most Romantic Story You'll Ever Hear

The Iron Curtain was a pretty big obstacle, back in the day. Although we made plans to visit him in his home town of Yaroslavl, he wrote that he’d been drafted into the army and would be there for two years. This was in the late 80s during Russia’s conflict with Afghanistan.

After that, we lost contact with Rashid Kamalov and could only wonder what had become of him.

My love of Russian culture (which had brought us to see the Kruzenshtern in the first place) continued unabated over the years. Of course my passion for all things ballet can never get enough of Russian dancers. I love Russian films, Russian actors, Russian singers and the Russian language.

This led to discovering the completely magical set of New Year’s films, Ironiya sudby and the sequel. So last year, we rang in 2012 with a duplication of the feast shown in those films with a combination of my mom cooking up some dishes, and with us ordering dishes from a Russian restaurant across the harbor in Halifax.

 

 

 

Then we watched the movie.

 

 

We used all the best dishes, the best crystal, the best prosecco from the imported wines store.

 





In my mind was the intention that I would one day make my way to St. Petersburg in Russia to see the Mariinsky Ballet perform at the Mariinsky theatre.

The unspoken longing to hear from Rashid was just a part of me. It was part of everything Russian that I loved.

Fast forward to the late spring. I stumbled upon a fantastic Russian historical series Bednaya Nastya on You Tube which I then watched on viki.com with subtitles. My husband became utterly addicted to it and watched it with me. It was awesome.

My comprehension of Russian really grew. I bought a few learn-to-speak-Russian books, kept watching Russian films, made a Russian-song playlist and listened to it constantly.

In August I appeared as an author at Fan Expo in Toronto with my two releases, SAINT SANGUINUS and BOUND BYDRAGONSFYRE. I held a contest for local Toronto book store gift certificates and contacted the winners by email.

I kept checking my spam folder in case the whole contest thing was driving their replies into that folder.

Otherwise I never would have checked my spam folder.

I never would have seen this staring at me:

Рашид Камалов Hi my dearest girles!!! I very happy get your m...

That’s right. The word that looks sort of like ‘pawned’ is really ‘Rashid’ in the Cryllic alphabet.

All my blogging and all of my longtime readers’ hopes that we would one day reunite, all of the searching online and sending out hopeful ‘Is this you?’ messages

CAME TRUE

Rashid is now my Facebook friend.

For realz.

 



 

My holiday wish for all of you this year: meet 2013 with intention. The universe is listening.

5 on Friday - 47

Travis at Trav's Thoughts invites everyone to lay down a short set of music that takes their fancies for his 5 on Friday meme.

Just in time for New Year's Eve! Here are some selections from a gorgeous set of films watched every single year by millions of Russians, in the same way that North Americans watch It's a Wonderful Life.

I cannot tell you how much I love these films and the music from them.

1 - Original film score for Ironiya sudby (The Irony of Fate) - Composed by Mikael Tariverdiev

This is a medley of the major musical themes that appear in the film. They're repeated in the sequel, made thirty-two years later. This clip contains scenes from both films. The two principal actors from the first film are the older couple in the sequel footage.

I just adore the melancholy magic of this musical score. It gets in my head and in my heart and just nestles in.



2 - Yesli u vas netu tyoti ( If You Have No Auntie) - Konstantin Khabensky

The film is peppered with what is known as ambient music, or music which appears in the scene itself (not as overdubbed soundtrack that only the audience can hear.) The characters are musical and the action stops - as in a musical - for a song. But it's entirely as a cultural reality, and not as the suspension of disbelief that a true musical employs, when the character's inner monologue becomes song and dancing breaks out.

The composer used the poetry of major Russian literary figures for his lyrics, and set music to them, drawing on a form known as the author song movement, or bard songs - these arose in the 1960s as something similar to the western beatnik movement.

Here the actor who plays the son of the major romantic lead from the original film sings the song his character's father once sang.

If you don't have a house
It won't catch fire
And your wife won't leave you

If you haven't
If you haven't
If you haven't got a wife
Got a wife

If you don't have a dog
A neighbour won't poison it
You won't fight with a friend

The orchestra is playing loudly
trumpets blow...
You must think for yourself
To have or have not

If you don't have an auntie
You can't lose her
And if you don't live
You can't die

The orchestra is playing loudly
Trumpets blow...
You must think for yourself
To have or not to have

- Aronov / Tariverdiev




3 - I Bless You - Alla Pugacheva

Both main actors had their singing voices dubbed over by professional singers in the original Irony of Fate. Here Nadya, played by Barbara Brylska, sings with the voice of the woman who became a major singing star in Russia - Alla Pugacheva.

I want to ask the mirror
With the cloudy, misty dreams

I want to make it tell me
Where you are heading
And where will you find shelter

I see
The mast of a tall ship
And you standing on the deck
And in the stern of the train
I see fields

Wrapped in the dusky sadness
The evening fields in dew
Ravens circling over them

I bless you
I bless you
I bless you
To go wherever you want

- Tariverdiev / Tsvetaeva




4 - Ya sprosil u yasenya (I Asked the Ash Tree) - Sergey Nikitin

Although this scene follows Nadya through a difficult decision, the song is performed by Zhenya, played by Andrey Myagkov and sung by Sergey Nikitin. This is one of the only times in the film where the song functions as in a normal musical, revealing character development without being an ambient performance.

I asked the ash-tree:
Where is my loved one?
The ash-tree didn't answer me
It just shook its head

I asked the poplar:
Where is my loved one?
The poplar threw its autumn leaves
All over me

I asked autumn:
Where is my loved one?
Autumn answered
With a pouring rain

I asked the rain:
Where is my loved one?
The rain shed its tears
Outside my window

- Kirshon / Tariverdiev




5 - Opyat Metel (Snowstorm Again) - Alla Pugacheva and Kristina Orbakayte

For the sequel, released for the thirty-year anniversary of the original film, the main singing star from Ironiya sudby is joined by her real-life daughter, to sing about the complicated love lives of the mother and daughter characters in the second film.

Not closing the door behind you
I live for another year

And since then
My unintentional losses
I'm waiting for someone

Again a snowstorm
And the past suffers in darkness

Again a snowstorm
Two eternities united
In one short day

Forgive me
Without understanding me
Don't languish on the threshhold
For long

Because of our
Second chance at love
Our past will become
Ancient history

- Lyrics by unknown artist

I'm blogging at Popculturedivas - drop by for a look at a Russian New Year's film classic

Join me at Popculturedivas where I'm taking a look at a film beloved by Russians and watched every New Year's for the past 30 years.













Apprentice Writer says OK I'm intrigued and will go take a look.

Poetry Train Monday - 82 - I Asked the Ash-Tree / 2009 Blog Improvement Project - 1

On New Year's Eve, my husband and I joined along with millions of Russians - as well as residents of former Soviet-bloc countries - to watch The Irony of Fate, a film made in 1975 and which has been broadcast on Russian television every New Year's Eve since then. Of course, we were watching our version on YouTube, thanks to a wonderful fellow by the online name of GalaBiR who has a giant cache of subtitled Russian films (yippee!)

The Irony of Fate is very dear to Russians, as dear as It's a Wonderful Life is to North Americans. I discovered this film through one of my favorite actors, Konstantin Khabensky, who stars in the 30-years-later sequel, The Irony of Fate 2.

It was so much fun to watch this film on the same special night as the story's twisty-turny plot. It's a fabulous combination of farce (which I love) and a very heart-tugging romance (which I love even more.) Peppered throughout the film are songs sung by the characters to one another, not in the sense that a musical will stop the action in a stylized manner, but in a real-time event because the characters are musical and enjoy playing the guitar and singing.

These songs are all poems by well-known Russian poets set to music, including the work of Boris Pasternak, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Marina Tsvetaeva and Bella Akhmadulina. All of the song lyrics function the same way as a song in a musical, or an aria in an opera - giving the audience a window into the hidden emotions of the characters.

I was especially taken by this song, set to a poem by Vladimir Kirshon. For the Poetry Train today, I'd like to share it with you.


I Asked the Ash-Tree (Ja sprosil u jasenja)


I asked the ash-tree:
Where is my loved one?
The ash-tree didn't answer me
It just shook its head

I asked the poplar:
Where is my loved one?
The poplar threw its autumn leaves
All over me

I asked autumn:
Where is my loved one?
Autumn answered
With a pouring rain

I asked the rain:
Where is my loved one?
The rain shed its tears
Outside my window

I asked the half-moon:
Where is my loved one?
The half-moon hid behind a cloud
And didn't answer me

I asked the cloud:
Where is my loved one?
The cloud disappeared
In the blue of the sky

My only true friend
Where is my loved one?
Tell me where she went
Do you know where she is?

My only friend
My only true friend answered me:
She who was your loved one
She who was your loved one
She who was your loved one
Is now my wife

I asked the ash-tree
I asked autumn
I asked the poplar

- Vladimir Kirshon

- arranged for the Russian film The Irony of Fate (Ironiya sudby) by Mikael Tariverdiev


Ride the Poetry Train! Your ticket aboard is creativity. Got a poem? Some prose? A painting? Anything goes.




You can listen to the I Asked the Ash-Tree song in this clip from the 1975 film.

The clip shows a Russian couple - Nadya and Zhenya - who have been brought together by a twist of fate on New Year's Eve, throwing their current relationships to existing fiances into chaos as they develop a powerful attraction for one another. Nadya goes to retrieve her fiance's photo which Zhenya, the new love interest, tossed out the window. She then goes to the train station to buy a ticket so the man in her apartment will return to his own life in Moscow. The song plays as she walks through Leningrad (these days, returned to St. Petersburg), trying to sort out her feelings. By the end we discover Zhenya has been singing the song to Nadya's mother, who didn't know who he was when she entered her daughter's apartment.




Setting Goals — What Is Your Blog For?


Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness is beginning a:

"year-long challenge that will consist of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month I’ll post an activity here at Sophisticated Dorkiness that will be related in some way to making your blog better. Each participant should spend the next two weeks focusing on that aspect of their blog. Possible topics include goals setting, writing better content, building community with readers, getting more readers and blog layout and design.

If you choose to participate in this project, there is no obligation to participate in every challenge, and you can customize each challenge so it makes sense for your particular blog and goals. Think of the design as similar to Weekly Geeks — participate when it makes sense for you. This is a group effort, because getting better is always easier when you have a support system, but the ultimate commitment remains with you — how do you want your blog to be better by the time we get to December 31, 2009?"

- Kim, a master’s student in the University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication

The first challenge is deceptively simple.

What is your blog for?

No time like the present is my second-ever blog post. Here's what I'd realized by this second post:

Yesterday when I set up my blog on a complete whim, I recognized my own Mrs. Putoffsky. She'd been hanging around so long she'd taken up residency. It was time to enroll her in the witness protection program.

Everyone's heard the phrase 'live each day as if it's your last.' If you're tossed out of the regular current of life and thrown gasping onto the bank, it's often hard to see your temporary vantage point for what it is. But it's a gift.

There's often a few cherished goals and desires permanently circling, waiting for the okay to land. I just got my clearance from the tower for my blog. I hadn't expected to get it from Dad, who's computer phobic.

Dad likes to make sure I'm safely launched and on my way. His recent detour onto his unexpected final journey gave me the push I needed to climb aboard the blog I've been yearning to sail.

For me, this blog began when I knew my dad's life was facing its final curtain. My writing took on a life-or-death quality, and I reached for life with everything inside of me.

Writers are constantly searching for time to get their stories out of their heads and onto the paper - or the screen. Successful writers make the time.

My blog was my first step toward making time for my writing.

For the Blog Improvement Challenge, I need to further define my blog's purpose. I've noticed that my arts-oriented posts put me in a category that encompasses more than writing. And I think that is a much more accurate depiction of who I am.

My group blog missmakeamovie focuses on film, television and pop culture. The dialogue with my fellow missmakeamovie bloggers fills me with joy. It's like oxygen to me.

The ballet performances I review show the heart beating inside of me.

The art work I've featured feeds my muse and excites my spirit.

Wordless Wednesday has given me a focus for my own photography as well as an enormous gallery of talent to visit.

The Poetry Train reawakened my soul in a way only a future poem can reveal.

The writers' network that my fellow bloggers have built between us encourages me beyond measure. The book reviews I've done for writers in my writers' group and for my blog friends have filled me with admiration and inspiration.

So to answer the question - what is my blog for?

A Piece of My Mind is a blog that celebrates the arts, encourages the creative, cheers the artist on and revels in the wonder of life.

The hard part for me is to set goals. I'm not a list-maker. I'm not a plotter. Goal-setting has the shadow of the list marring any possible attraction for me. But I set myself onto this challenge knowing I'd be pushing myself out of my comfort zones.

So my first goal for my blog is to showcase art work on my sidebar each month. I'm very image-oriented, and looking at the art feeds me in very important ways. I hope you'll enjoy my Sidebar Gallery - this month features the work of John Atkinson Grimshaw, Claude Monet, Arthur Lismer, Maud Lewis, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Carl Larsson, Cicely Mary Barker, Cornelius Krieghoff and Maxfield Parrish.